ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 381 



Lery (Hist. Navig. in Brasil., 154) describes the tree under 

 the Brazilian name of " Choyne " ; but elsewhere (p. 246) 

 he says " the natives have Cucurhitce (courges) and other 

 kinds of fruits," from which " they make their bowls, called 

 ' coui,' and other vessels." 



It is certain that " calaba^as," which were not arboreal, 

 but genuine cucurbits, were abundant — and were believed to 

 grow spontaneously — in the islands and on the main land, 

 before 1526. Oviedo (Historia, lib. vii. c. 8) observes that 

 " calabagas, in the Indias, were as common as in Spain, and 

 of the same kinds (delas mismas), long and round, or banded 

 (^eiiidas), and of all the shapes they usually have [in Spain]." 

 They were much used " in all parts of these Indias, both the 

 Islands and the Main," and " are one of the common things 

 that the Indians cultivate in their gardens." They were not 

 cultivated for food — " for they do not eat them " — but for 

 carrying water ; " and they have other calaba(jas that are 

 in all respects like the aforesaid, except that they are bitter 

 to the taste ; and there are many of these that grow of them- 

 selves without cultivation." ^ The same author (lib. xi., e. 1), 

 in a list of plants introduced from Spain, names Melons and 

 Cucumbers (pepinos), but not Gourds. 



The relation of the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci, 1489, in 

 a description of the Indians of Trinidad and the coast of 

 Paria, says that " each carried, hanging at his neck, two 

 small dried gourds (cucurhitas) ., one containing the plant 

 that they were accustomed to chew, the other, a certain 

 whitish flour," etc., and that each woman carried a " cucur- 

 bita " of water (Navarrete, iii. 252, 254). 



The " Cucurbita lagense forma," which Marcgrav found 

 in Brazil, 1637-8 (Hist. Nat. Brasilige, 44), though "very 

 probably Lagenaria vulgaris,^^ yet, as M. De CandoUe ob- 

 serves, " does not prove that the species was in that country 

 before the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci in 1504 ; " but we 



^ M. De Candolle, p. 198, citing this passage from Ramnsio's Italian 

 translation of Oviedo's " Historia," has " zucche " for " calaba^as " of the 

 Spanish original, and takes no notice of what is said of their spontaneous 

 growth. 



